


overwhelming love cascades

by madnessiseverything



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, listen yall this is soft, piano playing included, this is most definitely inspired by my dumb gay ass being soft about mornings and music okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 16:21:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17247464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madnessiseverything/pseuds/madnessiseverything
Summary: Fjord wakes to Caleb shifting away from his back and sitting up. With a soft noise of protest, he turns around to stretch out his hand in search for his boyfriend’s body. His fingers catch onto Caleb’s back. Caleb’s voice, rough from sleep, softly breaks through the morning haze. “Good morning.”or the one where Caleb plays piano and Fjord is Soft™





	overwhelming love cascades

**Author's Note:**

> this was brought about by music and domestic mornings in my own life. let these boys have something soft. (unbetaed because i wanted to get this out as my new years fic before midnight.)  
> i was listening to ["our journey" by peder b. helland](https://youtu.be/iJ1K2kDYV6Q) while writing this, i highly recommend. hope you enjoy!

Fjord wakes to Caleb shifting away from his back and sitting up. With a soft noise of protest, he turns around to stretch out his hand in search for his boyfriend’s body. His fingers catch onto Caleb’s back. Caleb’s voice, rough from sleep, softly breaks through the morning haze. “Good morning.” 

Fjord hums and pulls himself closer to Caleb, eyes still shut as he wraps his arms around Caleb’s waist. He feels more than hears Caleb laugh and doesn’t bother to suppress the purr that escapes him when Caleb threads his fingers through his hair. “Stay,” Fjord mumbles against Caleb’s skin. 

“I’m not going far, Liebling.” Fjord finally opens his eyes to the blue morning light of their bedroom to find Caleb’s gaze. Eyes matching the light look back at him fondly.    
  
“Do you have to go anywhere?” He asks, twisting around to place his head in Caleb’s lap. He leans into Caleb’s hand. Caleb tilts his head, pulling together his brows in thought. His lips twitch around the corners and Fjord doesn’t hesitate to raise his hand to run his fingers through Caleb’s beard, feeling the twitch turn into a smile.    
  
“I want to play,” Caleb mutters as he brushes a single strand of hair away from Fjord’s forehead, scratching over Fjord’s scalp with blunt nails. Fjord leans into the touch and sighs with content. He keeps his eyes locked with Caleb’s.    
  
“It ain’t running away.”    
  
“And you are?” Caleb asks with amusement, his free hand coming to rest on Fjord’s chest. Fjord turns his head enough to press a kiss to Caleb’s skin.    
  
“Wouldn’t dream of it, darling.” He lets his eyes slip close as Caleb leans forward to plant a kiss on his forehead in return. “But I might just be less cuddly in half an hour.”    
  
“You? I cannot imagine.” Fjord doesn’t blame Caleb. He will freely admit that he would spend the remainder of his life right in this bed holding Caleb close if the world allowed him to. Fjord feels Caleb’s hand trace circles into his sternum, feels slight tugs on his hair and breathes out. 

Many minutes pass like this, Fjord drifting off again as Caleb continues to play with his hair and draw shapes over his heart. 

“Your hair is getting long,” Caleb whispers after a while. Fjord slowly blinks his eyes open. Caleb’s looking at his hair with contemplation, fingers pushing through his fringe. “I like it,” he adds after a bit. 

“Adds to the rugged sailor look, right?” Fjord asks with a grin, watching Caleb roll his eyes with a matching grin growing slowly.    
  
“Most definitely.” Caleb leans down, his lips lingering on Fjord’s forehead. Fjord tilts up to catch him for a soft kiss. “I am going to get up now.”    
  
The sound that escapes Fjord is not a whine, he argues in his head as Caleb lifts his head to climb out of bed and replacing his warmth with a pillow. Caleb laughs nonetheless, patting Fjord’s head reassuringly. “Don’t be so dramatic.” 

“I shall perish now that you are leaving me,” Fjord moans and turns over to watch Caleb slip into sweatpants. “What will I do without my cuddle partner?” 

“Listen,” Caleb answers with a smile and pats over to the piano standing on the other side of their bedroom. The growing morning light is dulled by the white curtains, singular rays hitting the keys and Caleb’s back as he sits down. Fjord rearranges himself, blankets pooling around his waist and arms resting on Caleb’s pillow, head propped up on his arms. The sun streaks over Caleb’s skin, painting a line alongside his freckles.    
  
“Play something romantic, would you, love,” he asks absentmindedly, eyes wandering over Caleb without haste. His eyes catch onto the light red claw marks over Caleb’s spine, satisfaction spreading warmth into his limbs.   
  
“Anything for you,” Caleb replies and starts playing. A vaguely familiar tune fills their room and Fjord smiles. His eyes drift down from the claw marks to the constellation of freckles across Caleb’s lower back, connecting dots into images only he can see.    
  
This, Fjord muses, this is another thing he could spend the rest of his life doing. Listening to Caleb pour himself into music, feeling strings of his heart being plucked with each key, sinking into the melody, all while watching Caleb weaving sounds into melody and feeling love settle comfortably into every inch of his being. 

The piano came with the apartment, a left over from the time their landlord lived in the apartment himself. He’d asked them if they played and Caleb’s admission that he used to settled that the piano would stay where it was. It’s been a year since they moved in, and Fjord has counted his blessings that the piano exists many, many times.

He would forsake every other thing in this world for the view of Caleb playing, relearning old moves, finding new ones, losing himself in something that seemed to wipe his mind clean even if for only a few moments. Watching the way his eyes slip closed makes Fjord want to pause time, to let Caleb live in that very moment of serenity for as long as he can. And if Fjord gets to be in the moment with him, gets to see him unguarded in a whole new way, there is nowhere else Fjord would rather be.

The sun travels over Caleb’s back and onto the floor and Fjord continues to listen, eyes heavy but determined to keep watching Caleb, sneaking glances at his fingers moving over the keys.

Fjord’s mind wanders, thoughts drifting lazily through his brain. Their apartment is fully lived in by now, comfortable and everything Fjord could have dreamed of. Waking up to Caleb next to him is the only heaven he needs, but having their own space to fill with memories has been more than young him dared to imagine as a future. Loving Caleb, and being loved in return, will never cease to bring wonder and a deep feeling of comfort. Fjord doesn’t dare think where either of them would be had life worked out even a little differently. He doesn’t want to give up this for anything in the world.

“I love you,” he says, unsure if Caleb even hears him. There is no change in music, but Caleb glances over his shoulder at him and smiles. Fjord tilts his head and rests his cheek on his arm. Caleb mouths ‘I love you too’ at him and Fjord closes his eyes, focusing on the music.

There is something otherworldly to these early mornings. The sound of traffic falls away to give room to music, the light elevates their room into a space beyond its simple boundaries.  Breathing seems easier during these mornings, the world outside forgotten and leaving just Fjord, Caleb, the bed and the piano.

These very mornings have their own space in Fjord’s mind, ready to calm him should the world push and pull too much, turn cold and unsettlingly quiet and leave him drowning. When life tears at Fjord’s mind, willing him to fall apart, he knows he can fall back on these mornings, can remember Caleb’s fingers dancing over black and white keys, can remember freckled skin and the occasional morning sun ray hitting pale skin. He can remember the love pouring out of Caleb’s fingers into music and how unguarded his face is in the early hours. He can remember the love that fills every corner, every inch of their apartment.

Caleb shifts in the seat and the music slows. Fjord opens his eyes just as Caleb hits the final note and breathes out into the now silent air. A memory of a morning just like this tickles his brain. He remembers hearing the melody before. 

“You changed the ending,” he says quietly, unwilling to shatter the moment. Caleb turns around and Fjord’s eyes take their time traveling up from his torso to his face.    
  
“I did. What do you think?”    
  
Fjord pushes himself up onto his elbows, letting his hands hang over the edge of the mattress. He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth to think. “I like it. Makes the transition between music and life a little softer.”    
  
“I am glad.” Caleb closes the piano and gets up, walking back towards the bed. Fjord raises his head for a kiss but Caleb drops to his knees and leans into Fjord’s space instead. He rests his forehead against Fjord’s and hums happily. “It’s your song.”    
  
Fjord feels his heart skip and he kisses Caleb, unable to keep from smiling against Caleb’s lips. Caleb’s beard scratches against his skin and Fjord wants to keep him there forever. He doesn’t know how to respond so he pulls away to instead pepper kisses over Caleb’s cheeks and nose, words failing. 

Caleb’s keen eyes meet his and Fjord knows he is blushing, heat pulsing in his skin. Caleb is looking at him with the same love Fjord feels rushing through his veins. “I love you,” Fjord says, words stumbling as he presses another kiss to Caleb’s lips. 

“I love you too,” Caleb replies softly and pushes Fjord’s fringe out of his eyes, fingers resting against the side of his neck. “Pancakes?”    
  
“Always.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to drop by my [cr tumblr](https://nottanothercritter.tumblr.com/) or [cr twitter](https://twitter.com/nottanycritter) to talk about the disaster crew and gays. also it's 11:30 pm CET here, so happy new year and may 2019 be full of softness and all the gay <3


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